a. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates generally to a remote catheter guidance system (RCGS) for a plurality of medical devices, and more particularly to a collision detection and/or avoidance function for such an RCGS.
b. Background Art
Electrophysiology (EP) catheters are used in a variety of diagnostic and/or therapeutic medical procedures to correct conditions such as atrial arrhythmia, including for example, ectopic atrial tachycardia, atrial fibrillation, and atrial flutter. Arrhythmia can create a variety of dangerous conditions including irregular heart rates, loss of synchronous atrioventricular contractions and stasis of blood flow which can lead to a variety of ailments.
In a typical EP procedure, a physician manipulates a catheter through a patient's vasculature to, for example, a patient's heart. The catheter typically carries one or more electrodes that may be used for mapping, ablation, diagnosis, and the like. Once at the target tissue site, the physician commences diagnostic and/or therapeutic procedures, for example, ablative procedures such as radio frequency (RF), microwave, cryogenic, laser, chemical, acoustic/ultrasound or high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) ablation, to name a few different sources of ablation energy. The resulting lesion, if properly located and sufficiently contiguous with other lesions, disrupts undesirable electrical pathways and thereby limits or prevents stray electrical signals that can lead to arrhythmias. Such procedures require precise control of the catheter during navigation to and delivery of therapy to the target tissue site, which can invariably be a function of a user's skill level.
Robotic catheter systems are known to facilitate such precise control. Robotic catheter systems generally carry out (as a mechanical surrogate) input commands of a clinician or other end-user to deploy, navigate and manipulate a catheter and/or an introducer or sheath for a catheter or other elongate medical instrument, for example, a robotic catheter system disclosed in U.S. utility patent application Ser. No. 12/347,811, filed 31 Dec. 2008 and published 1 Oct. 2009 under publication no. US 2009/0247993 A1, now pending, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety as though fully set forth herein. Despite these improvements, physicians and patients would benefit from even further enhancement in the capabilities provided by such an RCGS.
There is therefore a need for improved systems and methods that enhance physician control and provide improved functionality in performing robotically-driven cardiac catheter procedures.